The most under-rated British Indie bands of the 90s – Marion, Rialto and more

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I have a theory that it takes a decade or two before we can properly appreciate the popular culture from an earlier decade. Much of what we love about the 60s, from The Beatles to Peter Blake, was hideously unfashionable in the 70s and didn’t really return to the mainstream until the mid 90s. Similarly the shoulder pads and wonky keyboard bands of the 80s were held in high disdain for decades and it wasn’t until the noughties that we remembered how much fun some elements of that decade’s music were.

And now it has to be the 90s to turn to be re-assessed. Sure the first ripples of a 90s revival are already starting to appear. Watching Danny Boyle’s amazing Olympics opening ceremony I was struck by how much of it made me think of the optimism and colour of the early Blair years. Then a couple of weeks later I was off to see the climax of the games – a gig by the band who eventually won the Brit Pop war – Blur. In fashion too the heritage brands that had such a resurgence in the 90s are back and selling well.

The first books about the 90s are also on the horizon. Alwyn Tuner wrote a very fine mini ebook about the 1992 election and its ramifications for politics and he will have an apparently more definitive tome on the 90s available very shortly. There will also be an interesting examination of London in the 90s soon which looks among other things at the art school roots of Brit Pop and the way in which Hoxton was transformed from a seedy east London no go zone to the home of the main movers in Brit Art.

Musically too there are the first rumblings of a 90s revival with Jake Bugg doing a very impressive impersonation of The La’s on his debut album and the growth of 60s obsessed psych bands, many of whom would have been very at home at the fringes of Brit Pop.

So now seems as good a time as any to take a look back over some of the 90s most neglected bands. I asked on Facebook and Twitter send in their nominations and ended up with about 50 bands to choose from.

There are so many that could have made the list from gothic popsters Jack through to harmony drenched power pop of Silver Sun. Maybe we ‘ll look back at them another time.

For now though here are ten, plus a whole load more on the Spotify list below.

Who have we missed? Tell us in the comments…

1 Oasis

Sure, I know they were huge back in the day, but these days Oasis seem to unfairly get written off as mere Beatles copyists who could knock out a good ballad. A description that is utterly unfair - and this comes from a diehard Blur fan! I still have issues with the lighter in the air theatrics of Morning Glory, but that debut (Definitely Maybe) is one of the most incendiary statements of intent any band has produced ever. And although it could never match the hype Be Here Now is a superb attempt to create a genre-defining Sgt Pepper style album. And that's without mentioning the wonderful B sides and oddities that pop up on The Masterplan, If you haven't listened to 90s Oasis for a while prepare to be blown away. If only for a band now with one tenth of their ability, ambition and sheer balls.

I’ll bore *anyone* to death on Five Thirty. Looked right, sounded right, great string of singles (and B-sides) and were incredible live. They were britpop 3 years before britpop which might have been the problem. The album was good songs horribly produced and they seemed to lose all impetus after that.